


trust fall

by poalimal



Category: Creed (Movies), Rocky Series (Movies)
Genre: Aggression, Alternate Universe - Adonis never becomes a boxer, Gen, Internalised Homophobia, M/M, Roughness, Shame, toxic masculinity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 07:01:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17741129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poalimal/pseuds/poalimal
Summary: Sometimes I think you think a man must not feel pain.





	1. Chapter 1

 

Four, five, six times - he spins. He swings left beneath B's leap, catching her by the waist; hoists her up till her hands rest on his shoulders.

Easy, easy: he sees it in her face. 'I got you, B,' he says, grinning.

One turn, then another, she lifts her legs up, up, up, around his face, he can't see through her skirt, she slides down his back, hold, turn, turn, ' _Don_ -ny--'

and he misses the fucking step. He goes down on his front, she grabs his shirt from the back, they fall down together.

He glares at the ceiling. Ignores her hand up. 'I'm fine,' he says, getting to his feet.

Bianca takes in a deep breath. When he looks up, she says: We should take a break.

'I said I'm fine,' Donny snaps. They don't have time to take a break, the performance is in three weeks.

She's already over by the bar, swinging on her jacket - but at the bite in his tone, she pauses, and meets his eyes in the mirror. 'That wasn't a suggestion,' she says.

'Oh, you runnin' things, huh, B?' he says. 'What happened to communication? To talking about our feelings?'

B raises an eyebrow. 'I dunno, Donny. You tell me.'

He laughs. 'So this one's on me, huh? You don't trust me for shit - but this one's on me. Ok.'

'I don't trust you?' Bianca says, whirling around. 'Donny, you don't trust your _self_ when you fail. Got walls so high up I can't even see you.'

'Yea,' he scoffs, turning his back on her. He starts stretching it out. He, at least, is ready to go again. 'Ok.'

Bianca is silent. 'Look, Donny,' she says. 'You know I love you. But I can't be your partner if you keep pushing me away.' He doesn't turn around. 'And I don't want to be if you're not willing to try.'

'Ok. Well. I'm not the one leaving practice early. So,' he says.

'So... what?' Bianca says, still behind him.

'So maybe we both need to think this partnership over,' he says.

Bianca is silent for a few moments. He turns and meets her gaze. Gives her nothing.

'Yea,' she says, finally. 'Maybe we do.' She tosses on her scarf, goes through the doors without looking back. That easy.

He doesn't call after her. Instead, he goes through the choreo three more times, alone.

He hits the step every single time.

 


	2. Chapter 2

 

Viktor opens his door with something like surprise on his face. After a moment he says, 'you are here.' Neutral as ever - could be talking to a telemarketer with that tone. 'I thought you were done with me.'

Donny brushes by him into his apartment, not really wanting to talk - but Viktor doesn't let him all the way past, grabbing him by his arm and pushing him up against the wall.

Donny growls and tries to pull out of his hold. Viktor doesn't let him. 'Get offa me,' Donny says.

'I thought I was disgusting?' says Viktor, relentless, ducking his head in close. His breath smells like mint and menthol. 'I thought I was pathetic? I come all the way from Ukraine to be near you, correct? I live in this building before you, but I am stalker, I am sick. I make you sick, the way I make you come. The way I lie to you.'

Donny rips himself out of Viktor's hold and slams the front door shut behind them. Something on the mantle falls and shatters. Viktor curses at him in another language.

'You really gone try and pretend like it's just some big fucking coincidence that you came here, to Philly? C'mon, V. I know you think I'm stupid,' says Donny, 'but I'm not that stupid.'

'I do not think you are stupid! Why do you say these things about yourself?' says Viktor, throwing his hands up. 'It is not either coincidence _or_ I lie. It is both coincidence _and_ I lie. I searched for you, for years. I was angry when I find out you are not fighting, I want to make it right for my father.'

'Your father fucking murdered my father,' said Donny, gesturing pointedly in his face. 'I grew up with _nothing_. Make that shit right.'

'You think I have not been trying?' Viktor snaps, slapping his hand away. 'And Mary Anne is not nothing. She loves you. It is more than I had when my father died.'

'Am I supposed to feel fucking sorry for you?' says Donny. 'Your father took--' he feels the heat spreading up in his face, behind his eyes, and realises with a heady sense of outrage that he is near tears '-- _everything_ I had. Everything Mary Anne had. And you still thought, what else can I take from this dude? Oh, I know - I'll fuck him and make him fall in--' He bites back the words, but not before he sees the realisation land across Viktor's face. 'Make him want something more. Yea, that'll be really funny, that'll really get in his head. That'll make things right.'

Viktor laughs softly. 'You think I want to fuck you?' Donny sneers - of course he wants to fuck him. Viktor shakes his head, frustrated. 'You think is so funny to be gay in Ukraine?'

'Oh, is it as funny as me being gay in America?' Donny says, goading him. 'Is it as funny as me being alive?'

'I am not saying it is not hard for you,' Viktor side-steps. 'I am saying I have never been with a man before you. I love women only. And I gave up on you anyway, I did not even look for you anymore. I build, I train, I live alone. I want nothing, I need nothing.

'And then you found _me_. You knock on my door, you say my music is too fucking loud, you make fun of my cooking - and that is it, for me.' He swallows, eyes glittering in the dimness, and he cups Donny's face in his hands. 'You are it, for me.'

Donny laughs wetly. 'Fuck you, Vik,' he says. 'Just fuck you. You think that makes it right?'

'I cannot apologise,' says Viktor. 'I came to this country to find you and kill you. There is no _I am sorry_ for that. I understand you never want to see me again. But Donny,' his hands slide down and he grips him by the shoulders, breaths heaving deep, 'what I don't understand, then, is... why are you here?'

Donny's body won't stop shaking. 'I'm not scared a'you,' he says. 'You can't make me scared of you.'

Viktor makes a wounded noise in his throat, and gathers him close. Donny scrunches his eyes closed against his shoulder, gulps back his tears, trying not to struggle. 'I never want you to be scared of me. I will never hurt you.'

'Don't you fuckin' say that,' Donny says, wrestling him back. 'You can't promise that.'

Viktor lets him go. 'I will,' he says, shaking his head.

'You _won't_ ,' Donny says.

Viktor pauses, eyes raking over Donny's face. '--I will not want to hurt you,' he says, leaning down. 'But sometimes I will. I will say something, or not say something, and it will hurt you. And maybe you want to be strong. Sometimes I think you think a man must not feel pain. So you will say you are not hurt.' Their lips brush. Donny's heart beats hard in his ears. 'And I will want everything to be ok. So I will say, ok, you are not hurt. But it will build up - me not hurting you, and you not being hurt, and us being both fine.

'So say you will let yourself feel hurt,' says Viktor, softly, against his mouth, 'and I will not promise to never hurt you again.'

'Oh, fuck you,' Donny mumbles, holding him tight. Viktor pulls him back from against the door and kisses him soundly, grabbing him by the back of his pants and grinding their hips together. Thank fuck for Viktor's ratty old sweatpants. Thank fuck they can finally get to the good stuff. B's gonna flip her _shit_ when he tells her--

Donny catches himself, shaking his head slightly when he pulls back to catch his breath, and tries to empty his mind. All too late, he notices Viktor sending him this funny little smile.

'I think I see now,' says Viktor, slow. 'I am the better of two bad options, yes? I must be. You are just here hoping to be distracted, I think.' Donny just stares at him, halfway to amazed and stalled out at annoyed. 'You come here angry, we have fight you have been putting off, you end up coming apart in my bed. Is that what you want? You make no promises, you leave, I don't see you until you are angry again.'

Donny sighs. 'It ain't even like that. I mean. Yea, B and I had a little thing earlier today, but... that's not what this is about.'

'Do not lie,' says Viktor lightly, still smiling. 'You will make me jealous. And I am not a jealous man. You will take care of whatever it is with Bianca that is bothering you,' he kisses him again, pulls open the door still kissing him, then pushes him out with a smile, 'and you will come back when you are ready for me to have you.'

Donny raises an eyebrow. 'Don't think the whole building heard you there, Vik. Be a bit louder next time.'

'My walls are not soundproof,' Viktor shrugs. 'I think people here already know what I am to you.'

Donny rolls his shoulders, looks up at him. '...And what are you to me?'

Viktor shrugs again, face a little remote. For all his big talk, he gets so quiet anytime they're out in public. It makes Donny kind of pissed off when he thinks about it, for reasons he doesn't really feel like untangling. Instead he leans up and presses their mouths together again. Vik crumples him close against his chest; Donny sighs all over.

They kiss until Donny feels like he can breathe again. He leans back and smiles without even meaning to, Viktor staring at him with all the warmth back in his face.

'Take care of your business,' he says, quiet and rough, 'and then come back to me.'

 

 


End file.
